Under the current fee-for-service (FFS) payment system, specialists developed practice styles and
business models that flourished by maximizing the delivery of highly reimbursed services.
Specialists today, however, are likely to be concerned about forthcoming global payment models that
are designed to reduce the inexorable increase in health care expenditures by promoting high-value
services, eliminating low-value services, and improving care coordination and integration. For many
specialists, this new world of global payments is slowly evolving from an amorphous concern to a
potential threat to their livelihoods.